Social Media Marketing – Say More On Twitter

Social Media Marketing – Say More On Twitter

The day has finally come where Twitter users can proclaim their irritation with the 140 character limit in more detail, since Twitter has formally confirmed that they have expanded the character limit to 280 per Tweet!

The social networking company, which was launched in 2006, grew aggressively to become one of the most trendy social media platforms across the globe, however recent slumps in growth persuaded the social media giant to make some improvements. Twitter differentiates itself from other social media networks with its ‘microblogging’ feature, which is vastly unique to equivalent social media sites like Facebook and Google Plus. Twitter has just over 330 million users that send about 6,000 Tweets per second.

Despite the 140 character limit that avidly defined the social networking service, Twitter reported on November 7 that they want every user around the world to ‘easily’ express themselves on Twitter. After carrying out a variety of tests over the last couple of months, Twitter determined that they wanted to extend the character limit, but only where required. Countries like Japan, China, and South Korea will stay at the 140 character limit, purely because there’s no necessity for an increase, as sending messages in these languages can be conveyed in a short amount of characters. Languages like English on the contrary, suffer from choked Tweets with 9% of English Tweets hitting the former 140 character limit.

So, why the change?

After conducting an array of tests to certain users, Twitter acquired valuable results and deemed the 240 character limit would be favourable for most users. Since 9% of English users were hitting the 140 character limit, many would need to spend time cropping their Tweets to make sure that they didn’t have to send several messages. Plus, users would now have the ability to readily fit their ideas into a single Tweet, so they could say what was on their mind and send them quicker than before.

The question is, what impact will this have for digital marketers and SEO specialists? Here are a few changes that they can expect to see.

Increased engagement

Since Twitter broadened the character limit, users have experienced a higher level of responses which led to more followers. Clearly, this has been a step in the right direction, as there has been a reported higher satisfaction rate from content producers combined with more Likes, Retweets, and Mentions.

Improved user experience for followers.

The widened character limit means that users will have smaller threads of conversations, considering that they can fit more content into a single message. Users with long threads of conversations reported that it can at times be problematic to follow and respond to. In addition, brands are enjoying the longer Tweets as it enables them to fit more comprehensive information into a single Tweet which creates higher engagement rates.

Increases customer communication

With the surge of firms using social media as a channel to handle customer service matters, customers can now express an issue in more detail on Twitter which is practical for both the customer and the business, as communication is substantially enriched. Prior to this update, many users would have looked to other social media platforms like Facebook to report customer service issues due to the fact that the character limit was too restraining.

More Creativity

Longer Tweets means that companies can enrich the creativity of their communication with their audience through storytelling, Q&A’s, and more engaging Twitter Chats. Companies would typically have to use other social media sites if they wished to get creative, however brands can now effectively use longer text to their advantage by interacting with their audience on a more personal level.

Though some users have argued that the increase in character limit by Twitter makes them more similar to other social media networks, the clear majority of users appear to be very happy with their latest update. Nothing is carved in stone in social media, as making changes to stay up to date with changing user behaviour is crucial for survival. For the time being though, both users and marketing specialists appear to have emerged the winner!

If you require any suggestions about how your company can leverage the increased character limit to your advantage on Twitter, simply reach out to Internet Marketing Experts Bendigo by phoning 1300 595 013, or alternatively visit their website for additional information: http://www.internetmarketingexpertsbendigo.com.au